It makes me sad to see an offer like this. In Europe we pay at least $ 2.100 for the 6D body ONLY, and we never get offers like this. Sadly the offer is only valid for the US only, this kit would still be much cheaper including shipping, handling and duties than what their charge us here.

Mail in rebates are effectively you loaning the company you are buying the equipment from the rebate money.

So all of you buying a 6D or 5DIII and looking forward to that $400 extra, well what you've done is said "Here, B&H, you can have $400 of mine for free!"

Mail-in rebates typically have a specific window of time during which you must remember to mail in the barcodes (or whatever) or you don't get your rebate. Then it can take a year or more to receive the rebate.

From the time you pull the trigger until the time you get the rebate, you have effectively loaned B&H $400 for free.

Mail in rebates are effectively you loaning the company you are buying the equipment from the rebate money.

So all of you buying a 6D or 5DIII and looking forward to that $400 extra, well what you've done is said "Here, B&H, you can have $400 of mine for free!"

Mail-in rebates typically have a specific window of time during which you must remember to mail in the barcodes (or whatever) or you don't get your rebate. Then it can take a year or more to receive the rebate.

From the time you pull the trigger until the time you get the rebate, you have effectively loaned B&H $400 for free.

Mail in rebates are a scam and should be avoided like the plague.

They're only a scam if you don't get the rebate, and only a nuisance if you mind having to remove the barcode from the box. If you would rather pay full price, go ahead.

I recently got $450 worth of rebates on three Olympus lenses I bought along with my OM-D back in March. I initially thought they were trying to wriggle out of it when they told me that I had sent the wrong barcode for the camera, but they ended up just accepting my receipt and sent me the full rebate anyway. It took a couple of months overall, but I paid $450 less than I otherwise would have done.

Plus, if my experience selling Tamron lenses I bought while I owned a Pentax body is any experience, losing the barcode via a mail-in rebate doesn't affect the resale value of the lens to any significant degree.

I suspect that the only way companies get out of paying such rebates is if the customer, having been lured by the rebate, forgets to mail it in in time or doesn't want to cut out the bar code; presumably enough of them do this for companies to keep doing it.

Mail in rebates are effectively you loaning the company you are buying the equipment from the rebate money.

So all of you buying a 6D or 5DIII and looking forward to that $400 extra, well what you've done is said "Here, B&H, you can have $400 of mine for free!"

Mail-in rebates typically have a specific window of time during which you must remember to mail in the barcodes (or whatever) or you don't get your rebate. Then it can take a year or more to receive the rebate.

From the time you pull the trigger until the time you get the rebate, you have effectively loaned B&H $400 for free.

Mail in rebates are a scam and should be avoided like the plague.

They're only a scam if you don't get the rebate, and only a nuisance if you mind having to remove the barcode from the box. If you would rather pay full price, go ahead.

I'd rather an instant rebate that I don't need to damage my boxes with or that relies on my memory, etc.

Quote

I recently got $450 worth of rebates on three Olympus lenses I bought along with my OM-D back in March. I initially thought they were trying to wriggle out of it when they told me that I had sent the wrong barcode for the camera, but they ended up just accepting my receipt and sent me the full rebate anyway. It took a couple of months overall, but I paid $450 less than I otherwise would have done.

You can damn well bet your life they were trying to wriggle out of it. If you no longer had the receipt, your rebate would have vanished down the plug hole.

Had the rebate have been "instant", you wouldn't have had to rely on having the receipt. You also would have had the extra $450 from the moment you purchased the equipment, not some months later.

If you went to the bank and asked them to lend you $450 for a couple of months, interest free, do you think the bank would say "yes"? Hint: if you withdraw cash from your VISA/Mastercard and don't pay it off, it'll earn interest at around 20%. But you, in your infinite wisdom, gave whatever company it was you bought this off $450 free of charge for 2 months.

Quote

I suspect that the only way companies get out of paying such rebates is if the customer, having been lured by the rebate, forgets to mail it in in time or doesn't want to cut out the bar code; presumably enough of them do this for companies to keep doing it.

Right - people get attracted by the "$400 rebate" but then forget to post it, post the wrong details, gets lost in the mail, etc, and the customer never gets the discount that they thought they were going to get. And this ensures that the scammer never has to give out the rebate to every person.

Deal like this make me sad and make Canon Australia look like an absolute joke.

+1, Zis ist reducilus, and the offer isn't even from some shady online discount you have to sue for delivery but from a reputable dealer.

While I really appreciate fair wages and all, the foreign (that's *you*, US-Americans :-)) markets show how much profit there still is in the Canon cameras over here, they are simply priced as "premium" or luxury products. The US offers nearly make a trip in person worthwhile than to buy local.

In fairness Canon does have some ok "cashback" offers now and again in Germany, some nice lens and flash discounts, but only for older camera bodies

People from others countries are drooling on these deals, and here you are bit**&%^ about these rebates

That would be because I've experience with mail in rebates.

Yeah, so have I....and while I would certainly prefer an instant rebate over a mail-in rebate, I'll take a mail-in rebate over no rebate at all. Really, the instructions are pretty simple, and three minutes of my time plus a postage stamp is a pretty minimal impediment to get the rebate.

Well, I paid $1779 for a 6D body only from B&H back in April (which was less than Canon's promotion period that followed), so if you want to send me the form to fill out and have me do all the work of cutting out the product codes from the box, I'd be happy to do all that work.

Why do they keep selling the cameras in bundles like this? Why not just offer a good price on the camera, and not add in all that "bonus" crap that we have to pay extra for in terms of shipping costs, extra taxes and environmental fees, duty and brokerage charges? It all gets tossed into a dumpster because it's worthless crap. (which I guess is why they have to give it away in the first place...) Maybe they're just hoping to appeal to the last vestiges of the Walmart mentality out there...?

Why do they keep selling the cameras in bundles like this? Why not just offer a good price on the camera, and not add in all that "bonus" crap that we have to pay extra for in terms of shipping costs, extra taxes and environmental fees, duty and brokerage charges? It all gets tossed into a dumpster because it's worthless crap. (which I guess is why they have to give it away in the first place...) Maybe they're just hoping to appeal to the last vestiges of the Walmart mentality out there...?

This isn't a rebate from Canon, it is a rebate from B&H. As such, they've got to write the cost of the rebate off against their sales so they bundle the camera with a bunch of extras for which they have a high margin and decide to sell much cheaper (possibly at cost?)

I've been thinking about a 6D as a backup for a little while now, and CR's front page B&H deal really has me thinking. At $1999 for that bundle, the resale of the package components could net a solid savings, especially since I already have a 24-205 and a printer...

People from others countries are drooling on these deals, and here you are bit**&%^ about these rebates

That would be because I've experience with mail in rebates.

For the most part, I'd say you're right (I hate them as well) but historically, Canon hasn't fudged these (check out slickdeals past threads on this . . . no one reports getting ripped off).

If you look at this no other way, then you get for your time: 5DmkIII, New, for the refurb price, with no tax . . . and some extra junk. It's basically where most of us feel that the retail price should be at (not a discount price mind you )